The bureaucracy, following its years-old practice, has started the exercise of declaring their assets with perhaps the intentional lacuna of not setting a deadline for submission put in the notice issued recently to officers across the board.
Unrest prevails in the rank and file of bureaucracy after the Punjab government on Monday asked them to submit details of their assets.
The Regulations Wing of the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) has issued a notification along with an Asset Declaration Performa to all the officers from Grade 17 upwards in pursuance of the recent Supreme Court ruling directing civil servants to declare their assets as well.
However, the government has not mentioned any deadline in the notification to submit the details, casting clear doubts on the intentions of high-ups in hushing up the matter.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling it is probably going to be an exercise of its own kind as the bureaucrats, popularly known as ‘babus’, are going to make their assets public. The government has demanded a detailed account of any kind of property or possession that a civil servant owns. The Asset Declaration Performa, divided into different parts includes bio data, job experience, and the department. It is further divided into moveable (vehicles) and immovable (houses, plots, shops, other property) properties. They will have to give details of their bank accounts, precious metals (gold bars and ornaments), foreign currency, investment in shares and the estimated market value of all of their declared assets. It also demands them to declare which schools are their children studying in, and whether they are getting foreign or local education. They are also bound to mention the date of purchase of all these assets besides their sources of income. The bank account details asking them to write in current, saving and PLS accounts are also included.
A mid-career officer, seeking anonymity said, “It is not possible to submit such minute details. Besides, it is going to amount to distrust and unrest among civil servants. Many people are from well-off families and get support from home. Besides, many will be pointed out for no fault of their own. This will eventually go down the drain.”
Services Secretary Syed Mubashar Raza however denied that the asset declaration is being done for the first time. “I joined the service in 1984 and have been submitting my asset declaration forms since then. It is nothing novel or newsworthy,” he added. To a question, he said the deadlines were never mentioned on such forms, it was understood that the forms were to be submitted within a period of one month.
Regulations Secretary Shahnaz Nawaz said that another section would collect the confidential details of all officers. “I’ve been recently posted and the notification has been issued before I joined,” she said replying to a query.
